Finally starting the Walnut/Redwood and Koa OM.

[BEJ]

Kevin, nice build going on, a forecast of warm, dry weather, OMG you must be an optimist. Warm and dry not happin up north here, had about 5"+ this month. Maybe you can crank out a knife or two while you wait.

Bruce,

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Hey Bruce, we are spotty down here so far, one day 70 and sunny, the next day 55 and raining.
As soon as I get the two gits I'm working on done, I have an apprentice knifemaker who wants to start, so I'll turn the knifemaking shop back into a knifemaking shop for a couple of months.

Kevin

[BEJ]

Kevin, maybe you could combine the two, not sure a knife with a guitar would work. But, a guitar with a knife some where in it might, "how does it sound?"..... "well it could be called a cutting edge type of sound," "a sound that makes your ears bleed," " boy, this thing just carves the notes out." I'm sure you could come up some more.

Bruce,

[Dan Bombliss]

Those look great Kevin! Can't wait to see them with a finish.

-Dan

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Okay so I've decided to spray the neck and body separate....I chickened out gluing the neck on ahead and spraying the guitar as one piece.
I put up my portable spray booth on the back patio last night. There is suppose to be dry weather in the high 60's, low 70's for about 10 days so I am going to get started with the finishing on this guitar.\
Tonight I'll do a quick sanding of the whole guitar again, wipe it down with naptha, and mask off what needs to be masked.
Then Thursday evening I'll spray on a coat of vinyl sealer using my new Rockler HVLP system......
Friday evening I'll brush on the first coat of the Hoods Lacquer based grain filler. Saturday morning I'll sand that a bit, then brush on the second coat of the grain filler. I'll let that dry a couple of hours, then begin spraying Behlens nitro. I'll do just two coats Saturday. Sunday is Easter and I won't be around to spray.... so the next coats will be done on Monday and the rest of the week, hopefully two coats per evening and I'll see how it goes.
Thats the plan. I'll take and post some pics too. I'm excited to get the finishing going!

Kevin

[Ken Hundley]

That is looking great, Kev. I Can't wait to see finish on it either!

[RnB]

Are you going to tint the grain filler? Looking at the product, I noticed it comes w/ a slightly Amber color....

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Nope, using it straight out of the can.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

my bad, no pictures yet!
I started the finish process. I tried brushing on the Hoods Lacquer based grain filler, and this stuff starts to dry so fast, that didn't go well, so I sand that first coat a bit, and sprayed the second, just slightly thinned. This went on quite well and leveled out pretty good. Two applications, and all the pores were not filled on the walnut. They say not to put down more than two coats for clarity purposes, so I stopped there. On Saturday I started spraying the lacquer, thinned by 20%, put on two coats. It is a start.Tonight I will scuff sand and spray one good coat, again thinned at 20%. This coat is going to dry two days, and I will have time to spray again Wednesday evening. I'm hoping to be able to spray one coat again on Thur and Fri evening, then 3 on Sat and 3 on Sun. That will be 12 and should be enough to level sand and prepare for two or three final finish coats.
That is the plan. I will take some pictures tonight of the guitar after the spraying so you'll see it thus far. The color and grain is sure pretty.
More tonight.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Here are some pictures my wife took in the spray booth. Doesn't show how the color and grain pops but you can see that I am getting to it. We had a break in last Wed. and my camera (along with alot of other things) was taken, so I've taken some pics after 7 coats of lacquer on my phone, and I'll try and get those off tonight.
The weather looks good all week so I should get this done by the end of the up coming weekend. I'm looking forward to that.

Kevin